Gindlesperger found guilty on 15 different charges

After deliberating for a little more than two hours Thursday afternoon, a jury found 30-year-old James Gindlesperger guilty of raping a young boy 52 times.

The jury returned a guilty verdict on 15 different charges, including rape, statutory sexual assault and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. Just to make sure the verdict was unanimous on "each and every count and each and every charge," Gindlesperger's defense attorney asked the court to poll the 12 jurors individually.

In each instance, the response came back the same: guilty - 180 times guilty.

"We're stunned," said Gindlesperger's defense attorney Michael Kuhn, a Somerset County public defender.

"I anticipated that at worst they would come back with one or two counts of rape," he added. "But I certainly didn't think 52."

Somerset County Assistant District Attorney Catherine Primavera said she was satisfied with the verdict, but declined further comment before sentencing. Gindlesperger will face at least five years in prison - the mandatory minimum for rape - when he is sentenced April 5.

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Kuhn said his client maintains his innocence and is considering his post-trial options, which could include an appeal or post-sentence motions.

"Mr. Gindlesperger did discuss his options. He hasn't decided what he wants to do," Kuhn said just moments after the jury issued the verdict.

Gindlesperger, who lived in Somerset prior to being jailed, showed no visible emotion when the verdict was read. He blinked a few times, bowed his head or stared at a wall, and conferred with his attorney before being escorted from the courtroom by a sheriff's deputy.

State police said Gindlesperger raped the boy once a week in 1998 and 1999. The boy was 7 and 8 years old at the time, according to a criminal complaint.

Police said Gindlesperger had a relationship with the boy's mother and used occasions when she was sleeping or away working to molest the child.

Before the jury began deliberating Thursday, Primavera asked the judge for permission to cut the number of counts in half, from 104 to 52, to "lessen the confusion for the jury."

Kuhn argued that the attorney was doing exactly the opposite, though the judge's decision may ultimately benefit his client.

"They want you to believe, by filing all these charges, that he must have done something," he added during his closing argument.

The number of incidents, and the time frame over which they occurred, was debated throughout the three-day trial.

The defense attorney argued that the boy's story kept changing on both accounts. He suggested that the boy was lying and that the lie was growing "bigger and bigger" like a weed that takes over a garden.

"The flowers in the garden are being overcome by the weed," Kuhn said.

But Primavera argued that the boy's story was consistent, and repeatedly asserted that a 12-year-old doesn't concern himself with dates or times.

The boy originally told police that he was assaulted five times a week for three years, according to testimony. Later, he testified that it could have occurred over a period of seven years, according to Kuhn.

After talking to Gindlesperger at the Somerset County Jail, police filed charges for two years, 1998 and 1999.

State police Trooper Jeffrey Brock testified that Gindlesperger admitted to raping the boy once a week for a year.

"He said, 'I'm a (expletive) idiot. I need help,'" he said.

But Gindlesperger testified that he misunderstood the trooper's question. He also suggested that the police officer and children and youth services caseworker fabricated his confession.

"I never said none of that," Gindlesperger testified Wednesday.

"So all of this is made up?" Primavera asked.

"Yes," he responded.

Kuhn also argued that several of the commonwealth's witnesses made inconsistent statements or provided testimony that "did not support the police report."

In her closing statement, Primavera asked the jury what incentive the boy would have to lie and drag himself through the judicial process.

He "is never going to get through this," she said. "He may live what seems to be a normal life, but he will never recover from this."

The boy took the stand Wednesday after a judge determined he was competent.